toast
 / pain grillé 
Tribute
to Anthony from Manchester (UK) / MANGER UN TOAST - PORTER UN
TOAST
Anthony wanted
to hold a toast to his daughter and wife:
- Je crois qu'il est l'heure de porter un
pain grillé !
The translation was rather good. French people do have some "pain
grillé" for breakfast while their British friends are eating
"toasts".
Though in France, one celebrates any occasion with a toast, not with a
"pain grillé". No translation is needed (nor required !) in this
case.
Nice try ;)
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mur / pared 
Tribute
to Nuria from Sant Julià de Lòria (AD) / AU PIED
DU MUR
NO HAY PARED
|
Núria
had
studied in a French school in Andorra for more than 15 years. She is
now studying at the university in Strasbourg (FRA) and beginns to deal
with French slang and expressions. Each lunch at the university
restaurant is a good occasion to know eachother and learn French.
Núria asks one of her classroom mate how he is doing today:
- Núria :
" Et toi Denis, ça va ?"
- Denis :
" Oh m'en parle pas, je suis au pied du mur !"
Núria checks underneath the table, comes back, and recons:
" Pero si no hay
pared, il n'y pas de mur ni de pied sous la table ! "
Well... you're a good observer Núria.
Indeed there are no feet, no wall underneath the table. "Être au
pied du mur" in French means to be on the brink on facing strong
difficulties, to be upset, helpless... In French you can be "au pied du
mur" ("on the foot of the wall") including in the middle of a
desert... |
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PIN / ???
Tribute
to to Wilkinson's (UK) / ENTREZ VOTRE BROCHE !
My sister and I went shopping at Wilkinson's in order to
buy some paint cans and brushes. As usual I found a lot of little
useless things to buy and had to pay with my credit card.
After one minute, the lady at the cash machine asked me:
"Sorry, but your
credit card does not seem to work, is it Spanish ?"
I was surprised, took the device and tried to understand the message it
was delivering:
"Entrer broche"... was appearing on
screen!
We could not but laugh out loud: broche
does mean pin in French indeed... when related to jewellery but it does not mean P.I.N.
(Personal Identification Number) although you can find the translation
"Code PIN" directly imported
from the English acronym. I had no jewel on
me so I typed my
code and it worked perfectly...
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in French can also be a word meaning nothing but
stressing an
hesitation... If you pay good attention you will notice that French
people use it at the beginning of almost each sentence.